[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15630]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        A SOLDIER'S REFLECTIONS

  (Mr. BUTTERFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, on June 1, 2005, U.S. Army Corporal 
Phillip Charles Edmundson of my home community of Wilson, North 
Carolina, became the first war casualty since Vietnam. I rise today to 
remember his bravery by reading a poem written by George L. Skypeck 
called, ``A Soldier's Reflections'':

     ``I was that which others did not want to be.
     I went where others feared to go
     and did what others failed to do.
     I asked nothing from those who gave nothing
     and reluctantly accepted the thought of eternal loneliness . 
           . .
     Should I fail, I have seen the face of terror;
     felt the stinging cold of fear;
     and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moment's love.
     I have cried, pained, and hoped . . .
     But most of all, I have lived times others would say
     were best forgotten.
     At least some day
     I will be able to say that I was proud of what I was . . . `a 
           soldier.'''

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